A mid-level IT professional with tons of mainframe experience assumed that her skills were obsolete and despaired of being able to find a decent-paying job based on her "dated" experience.To test her assumptions, I did an Internet search for "mainframe jobs" and discovered over 2000 listings on Dice.com alone.
It turns out that there is actually a window of opportunity for programmers and systems analysts with mainframe experience. Apparently there are still lots of legacy mainframe systems that have not yet been replaced by newer technologies and fewer technical professionals to work on those systems. Many people with mainframe experience have retired or moved onto the newer technologies. As a result there is a lot of contract/consulting work for people with mainframe experience.
Obviously mainframes are not the wave of the future; but people with mainframe experience can still support themselves (and apparently support themselves quite well) while they either prepare for retirement or seize the opportunity to upgrade their technical skills and learn newer technologies.
The moral of the story. Do your homework before you make assumptions. Your livelihood may depend on it.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Another Look At Why Work Ethic Matters
Last night I was powerfully reminded of why it is so important for us to care about the work we do and, by extension, do it well.
I was leaving my office at around 7:00 to go out for a short walk and pick up some dinner. Directly in front of my building, a disturbing scene was unfolding. A man in a wheelchair, with only one arm and one leg, was struggling to get out of his chair and chase after two young able-bodied men who had stolen his crutches from the back of his chair. These two men ran quickly across a busy downtown intersection, waving the crutches over their heads victoriously. To make things worse, there was a policeman sitting inside his patrol car watching this scene unfold. As the man in the wheelchair stood on his one good leg, impotently screaming at the thieves, the police car slowly and deliberately drove away.
When I got to the corner convenience store, I saw the two men jubilantly high-fiving each other over their success; inside the store, the man's crutches stood innocently leaning against the counter. I walked back to my building to tell the wheelchair-bound man where they'd left his crutches, but he'd disappeared.
If the policeman had done his job, those two mean-spiritied young men would be sitting in jail long enough for them to think many times over about ever doing such an awful thing again. They certainly would not be prancing down the street celebrating their crime. And the police officers would be reprimanded for a poor job performance.
From a larger perspective, I am reminded of how important it is to care about the work you do and do it well. As part of my career counseling work, I often help my clients look for ways to make intolerable jobs more tolerable and create plans that will enable them to find and build more satisfying careers. But I'm not good with people who feel entitled to get paid without doing the work they were hired to do. If you are willing to accept a paycheck to do a job, you have a responsibility to do that job to the best of your ability....right up until the day you quit.
I was leaving my office at around 7:00 to go out for a short walk and pick up some dinner. Directly in front of my building, a disturbing scene was unfolding. A man in a wheelchair, with only one arm and one leg, was struggling to get out of his chair and chase after two young able-bodied men who had stolen his crutches from the back of his chair. These two men ran quickly across a busy downtown intersection, waving the crutches over their heads victoriously. To make things worse, there was a policeman sitting inside his patrol car watching this scene unfold. As the man in the wheelchair stood on his one good leg, impotently screaming at the thieves, the police car slowly and deliberately drove away.
When I got to the corner convenience store, I saw the two men jubilantly high-fiving each other over their success; inside the store, the man's crutches stood innocently leaning against the counter. I walked back to my building to tell the wheelchair-bound man where they'd left his crutches, but he'd disappeared.
If the policeman had done his job, those two mean-spiritied young men would be sitting in jail long enough for them to think many times over about ever doing such an awful thing again. They certainly would not be prancing down the street celebrating their crime. And the police officers would be reprimanded for a poor job performance.
From a larger perspective, I am reminded of how important it is to care about the work you do and do it well. As part of my career counseling work, I often help my clients look for ways to make intolerable jobs more tolerable and create plans that will enable them to find and build more satisfying careers. But I'm not good with people who feel entitled to get paid without doing the work they were hired to do. If you are willing to accept a paycheck to do a job, you have a responsibility to do that job to the best of your ability....right up until the day you quit.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
In Praise of "Seven Days to Online Networking"
To paraphrase Thoreau: sometimes you can date the beginning of a new era in your life by reading a book.
Thoreau undoubtedly had something more literary in mind than Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton's book Seven Days to Online Networking, but a career counselor's work is often profoundly pragmatic. It has been decades since I've read a job search book that actually transformed the way that I think about the job search process.
I've known for awhile that the Internet is changing the way that people look for jobs. I have shared my clients' frustrations that, after posting their resumes on job sites like Monster and CareerBuilder, they wait (often in vain) for employers to respond to them. I have also known that many people are using social networking sites to advance their networking and job search efforts; but I haven't been able to develop clear guidelines on the best sites or ways to use those sites -- until now.
This book made me a better counselor and I recommend it often. It has taught me how to use the major sites to meet potential employers and help my clients develop customized plans to use online networking in their careers.
And for that, I thank them.
Thoreau undoubtedly had something more literary in mind than Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton's book Seven Days to Online Networking, but a career counselor's work is often profoundly pragmatic. It has been decades since I've read a job search book that actually transformed the way that I think about the job search process.
I've known for awhile that the Internet is changing the way that people look for jobs. I have shared my clients' frustrations that, after posting their resumes on job sites like Monster and CareerBuilder, they wait (often in vain) for employers to respond to them. I have also known that many people are using social networking sites to advance their networking and job search efforts; but I haven't been able to develop clear guidelines on the best sites or ways to use those sites -- until now.
This book made me a better counselor and I recommend it often. It has taught me how to use the major sites to meet potential employers and help my clients develop customized plans to use online networking in their careers.
And for that, I thank them.
Tim Russert and the Work-Life Balance Debate
The premature death of political analyst Tim Russert at the age of 58 stunned his colleagues and, in some ways, electrified television viewers across the country. The seemingly indefatigable Russert was known as one of the hardest working men in television - the last one to leave at night and the first one into the office in the morning. But he wasn't putting in face time. He was intensely connected, a man who clearly loved his work and his celebrity.
Russert is also famous for writing a best-selling book about his relationship with his father, titled Big Russ and Me, in which he extols his father's character and working class values of honesty, decency and hard work. Russert wrote the book for his son Luke because he wanted to Luke to understand his grandfather's legacy and not assume the mantle of privilege and entitlement that children of successful professional parents sometimes acquire along with their parents' success.
I admired Tim Russert. He did, indeed, appear to be a hardworking, ethical and decent man. He was also a successful professional who clearly possessed a brilliant mind and used it effectively in his work. And then there was that incredible passion for truth and honesty, a man who brought his soul into his work as well.
The current espousal of "work-life balance" stands in stunning contradiction to Russert's living definition of a meaningful life. When many people speak of a work-life balance, they are often people who don't like or find meaning in their work and want to spend more time at play. But Russert was as committed and intense about his family life as he was about his work. For him they were both part of a passionate and committed life.
Perhaps he worked too hard and that overwork contributed to premature death. If so, that would be a tragic irony. But if Edison was right that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, then then our individual and collective success may be placed in jeopardy by the whole work-life balance ethos.
We need to reframe the paradigm so that we understand what it means to be fully committed to both our work and our personal lives. Tim Russert was one of the finest examples of what it means to live life with passion and intensity. While his death will be viewed as a cautionary tale to slow down and smell the roses, the cliche doesn't really apply. This was a man who did smell the roses albeit while barreling down the road at 100 mph.
Russert is also famous for writing a best-selling book about his relationship with his father, titled Big Russ and Me, in which he extols his father's character and working class values of honesty, decency and hard work. Russert wrote the book for his son Luke because he wanted to Luke to understand his grandfather's legacy and not assume the mantle of privilege and entitlement that children of successful professional parents sometimes acquire along with their parents' success.
I admired Tim Russert. He did, indeed, appear to be a hardworking, ethical and decent man. He was also a successful professional who clearly possessed a brilliant mind and used it effectively in his work. And then there was that incredible passion for truth and honesty, a man who brought his soul into his work as well.
The current espousal of "work-life balance" stands in stunning contradiction to Russert's living definition of a meaningful life. When many people speak of a work-life balance, they are often people who don't like or find meaning in their work and want to spend more time at play. But Russert was as committed and intense about his family life as he was about his work. For him they were both part of a passionate and committed life.
Perhaps he worked too hard and that overwork contributed to premature death. If so, that would be a tragic irony. But if Edison was right that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, then then our individual and collective success may be placed in jeopardy by the whole work-life balance ethos.
We need to reframe the paradigm so that we understand what it means to be fully committed to both our work and our personal lives. Tim Russert was one of the finest examples of what it means to live life with passion and intensity. While his death will be viewed as a cautionary tale to slow down and smell the roses, the cliche doesn't really apply. This was a man who did smell the roses albeit while barreling down the road at 100 mph.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Cleaning Up Your Online Identity
Creating and maintaining a professional online identity is an important part of any overall job search strategy. Unfortunately there is a lot of information on the Internet that is either inappropriate or just plain wrong. As a benign example of this, I googled my brother Eddie to see what the world was saying about him and discovered that we are related to the actor Judd Hirsch. Apparently this is a very well-guarded family secret since no one in my family can trace any relationship whatsoever to Judd Hirsch. Fortunately this isn't the kind of misinformation that is particularly harmful to anyone (which is why we chose to laugh about it rather than get upset). But some people have discovered that there is information floating about in Cyberspace that may actually be harmful to them.
If you want to know what's being said/printed about you, start with a Google search of your name and see what pops up. If there is misinformation that you want corrected, you can then go directly to the content provider and talk to them about having that information removed. Another option is to subscribe to a service such as ReputationDefender.com and work with them to have the offending and/or erroneous information removed. Of course, it may not always be possible. There is still a First Amendment Right to Free Speech in this country that can make it hard to get rid of information about you that is not flattering, especially if that information turns out to be true.
Consider this fair warning for those of you who are devotees of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The things that you say about yourself can come back to haunt you. So be very very careful what you choose to publicize about yourself.
It's never too late. Even if there is offensive content floating around, you can actively bury that information under a pile of new content. If you publish a website, write a blog, and create lots of new content that is more consistent with what you want people to know about you, the older content will get pushed out of sight and you will be in a much better position to market yourself effectively.
One of the most interesting ways to establish and promote your good name is through Naymz (www.naymz.com). They bill themselves as a Reputation Network. At this site you can create a profile, invite references to comment on your work, and use their search engine to promote that information. Through a systematic approach like this, you can control the flow of information and create an online identity that works effectively for you.
Creating and maintaining an online identity is now part of the professional landscape and an important tool that you can use to establish a professional identity and enhance your reputation. It's definitely worth the time to learn to use these tools to your own advantage.
If you want to know what's being said/printed about you, start with a Google search of your name and see what pops up. If there is misinformation that you want corrected, you can then go directly to the content provider and talk to them about having that information removed. Another option is to subscribe to a service such as ReputationDefender.com and work with them to have the offending and/or erroneous information removed. Of course, it may not always be possible. There is still a First Amendment Right to Free Speech in this country that can make it hard to get rid of information about you that is not flattering, especially if that information turns out to be true.
Consider this fair warning for those of you who are devotees of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The things that you say about yourself can come back to haunt you. So be very very careful what you choose to publicize about yourself.
It's never too late. Even if there is offensive content floating around, you can actively bury that information under a pile of new content. If you publish a website, write a blog, and create lots of new content that is more consistent with what you want people to know about you, the older content will get pushed out of sight and you will be in a much better position to market yourself effectively.
One of the most interesting ways to establish and promote your good name is through Naymz (www.naymz.com). They bill themselves as a Reputation Network. At this site you can create a profile, invite references to comment on your work, and use their search engine to promote that information. Through a systematic approach like this, you can control the flow of information and create an online identity that works effectively for you.
Creating and maintaining an online identity is now part of the professional landscape and an important tool that you can use to establish a professional identity and enhance your reputation. It's definitely worth the time to learn to use these tools to your own advantage.
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